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Spirit Of The Group
Ordo Gathering: Normally when an encounter with The Divine occurs only one Adept is transformed into an Adept. However, there are exceptions when two or more Nazoreans encounter God together, as a group. The experience of God through a gathering of people leaves those people inexplicably tied together on the deepest of levels. Connected, mind to mind, this hive-like Order of Adepts is able to organize and work flawlessly together, after all, they are one of mind. Gatherer Degrees Facts: -The Order of the Gathering, or simply the Gathering, is composed of units of individuals who are linked together on a psychological and metaphysical level. -The Gathering can share knowledge, memories, skills and specific powers at will, although only one person can use one 'specific power' at a time. -Members of the Gathering belong to a single unit, usually those who they were transformed into Adepts with. They can hear each other's thoughts in the back of their minds, a chorus of emotions and voices like a crowd inside ones skull. -Members of the Gathering absolutely love it, after being part of such a hive mind for years they have even grown emotionally dependent upon it. -Members of a Gathering look out for each other. There is very little bickering and prejudice between members, and even the most reclusive of them is still a social animal. -Because of their ability to think and strategize with the speed of thought, the Gathering is always organized and united in their purpose. -The Order as a whole is known as the Gathering, however individual units who are each a hive mind on their own are also individually called a Gathering as well. -Distance doesn't matter, each mind within the Gathering is still connected to the others. However, trapping them in other dimensions will block the link. -It is possible to 'disconnect' one or more members of a Gathering temporarily, ordinarily through supernatural means, but the minute they are free they will once again automatically reconnect with the Gathering's gestalt mind. -It is possible for other members to be added to a Gathering, but this is rare. -Unfortunately, in return for all these powers of unity, the Gathering suffers from a major weakness - lack of originality and individuality. -People sometimes get freaked out working alongside a Gathering, the silent eeriness of a group of people who work in unison without a single word spoken between them freaks them out. -When cut off from their Gathering for a prolonged amount of time, most Gatherers become anxiety ridden and are afraid of silence. They will often turn on TV's and radios, up to full volume, in order to beat back the silence. -Within the collective mind of a Gathering, usually a few minds (the oldest Adepts in the group) will dominate. Usually there's three to five minds whose voices sway the others, acting as a sort of leadership within the group. -Gatherers are so jacked into a Gathering, they often speak in terms of "we" instead of "me" or "I." -When a single member of the Gathering is wounded, especially if the damage is serious, there's really nothing the rest of their Gathering wouldn't do to save them. The idea of sacrificing a member is simply too abhorrent to them, only if the entire collective was threatened would they consider such an act. -Young people, especially if given to cliques or gangs and such, have a higher potential for becoming a Gathering. -Remember, it takes multiple people to make an initial Gathering. A single individual can't start one on their own. -In a rare instance where most or almost all of a Gathering is wiped out (usually during a final throw down with a big baddie), the surviving member(s) will be emotionally devastated. In most cases, these Gatherers, unable to live on their own, will seek out other Gatherings to join. -Most Gatherings number about 5-30 individuals, although notable Gatherings have numbered far more. One of the largest on record, a Gathering that lived almost on it's own, isolated deep within the Russian tioga, numbered no less than 250 individuals spread out over three different towns they had made for themselves! -Separate Gatherings cannot mind-link with each other unless the dominant minds within each group mind-link with each other. This creates a two-tier organization that keeps Gatherings from accidentally meshing together. -Members of the Gathering can choose at any time to see through the eyes of any other member, in addition to what they are seeing now. They see it in their mind's eye, so to speak. -Both men and women are found aplenty within the Order, although most observers notice that there seems to be slightly more girls than boys within the ranks of Gatherings. -It should go without saying that infighting is strictly forbidden within the Order. Gatherers rarely have to deal with it because the nature of their membership makes them of one mind, however in the rare cases were some individuals simply will not agree to what the majority says, the dominant minds in the group will issue a verdict. Normally the verdict will be a compromise of sorts. -The members of a Gathering, even if they were cultural diverse before, will soon pan out as the personalities of each are slowly disseminated through the hive mind of the group. The result is that soon, very soon, all members of a Gathering will dress alike, act the same, behave the same, even vote the same way. -The Order of Anarchs and the Gathering do not get along. Anarchs at best consider a Gathering to be deluded fools for wanting to throw away their liberty, and at worst they see the entire Order as an attack on freedom in general. -The Order of Disciples are long standing allies of the Gathering, so much so that most Disciple Adepts can come and go at a Gathering and the Gatherers won't care. They consider all Disciples to already be Auxiliaries by default due to the nature of their Order. Auxiliaries: Auxiliaries are Adepts who have decided to join, maybe temporarily, a Gathering. They retain the powers and nature of their original Order, and cannot gain the powers of a Gatherer Adept aside from the mind-link with the other members of that Gathering. These 'Auxiliaries' help to diversify the Gathering and equip it with new abilities. Drawing the Line Between Religion & Cults: Gatherings have frequently been wrapped up with cultic movements, and more than a few Adepts of other Orders have accused the Gathering of having a cult-like nature. The idea of suppressing one's individual liberty is never popular on a wide-scale, but given the Gathering's special nature and power, that makes the other Adepts nervous. A Cult with the power to mind-link it's members could spread quickly and effectively. Hypostatic Union: The Order of the Gathering has a special devotion to God in His Aspect as the Hypostatic Union in Xtrian orthodox theology. -http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-the-hypostatic-union -https://carm.org/dictionary-hypostatic-union References: -http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Hive_Mind -http://www.thesororitylife.com/ -http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105327/ -Cults on Wikipedia Category:God